Trump's campaign staffers have made countless statements and tweets on their personal social media profiles that, Muslims are unfit to be Americans, criticized Mexican accents, called for the hanging of Secretary of State John Kerry and declared their readiness for a possible civil war. All according to a review by The Associated Press of their postings.
The AP reviewed the social media content of more than 40 present and past campaign employees who contributed to the surge that won Trump victories through the state by state primary elections. The campaign has hired a vast range of senior political operatives and outsiders. Most of the staffers seem to be dedicated, enthusiastic partisans, but at least seven expressed views that were overtly racially motivated, supportive of violent actions or broadly hostile to Muslims.
A graphic designer for Trump's advance team approved a posted video of a black man eating fried chicken and criticized fellow blacks for ignorance, irresponsibility and having too many children. A Trump state organizer in Virginia exclaimed that Muslims were seeking to impose Sharia law in America and that, "Those who understand Islam for what it is are gearing up for the fight."
Since Trump declared his presidential candidacy last summer, he has hired and paid about 115 people on his campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Over this past weekend, the campaign documented about 70 people drawing salaries.
The AP also conducted a review of social media accounts of more than three dozen employees of Hillary Clinton's (far larger campaign) staff and found nothing offensive and ignorant . One staffer said Trump's style of speaking reminded him of a college roommate who had taken too many hallucinogenic mushrooms. The Associated Press also reviewed pictures attached to more than 18,000 stolen internal emails from the DNC for racially or religiously inflammatory memes, finding nothing of note.
Beth Myers, a former top Mitt Romney campaign aide recently stated the following, "In vetting a prospective staffer, I'm not sure where the line would be for not hiring someone or simply asking them to take something down from social media, but there is a line."
During Myers' work for Mitt Romney in the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaign bids, she stated, "Social media was newer, so indiscrete or embarrassing photos were more often concerns than inflammatory views. Even outside social networks...", she stressed to the campaigns' staffers that what they said and did would reflect on the candidate who employed them. "Don't put anything in an email that you wouldn't want on the front page of The New York Times," she recalled telling staff. "The same thing I told my kids, I told my staffers."
With Donald Trump and his campaign now setting a new precedent for campaign staffers to rigorously say and post just about any type of content regardless of moral or logical reasoning, that is also racially and religiously charged... will this become the new standard in American politics, or will it not be tolerated and thus rejected and recognized as a serious problem?
"Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians." A quote by Charles Krauthammer.
